REVIEW: “The Seal Wife” by Madeline White

Review of Madeline White, “The Seal Wife,” Flash Fiction Online 141 (June 2025): 23-25 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I sometimes shy away from selkie stories because the myth is so narrowly defined that it is hard for an author to do something new and different. One aspect I really enjoyed about White’s take was that the titular seal wife while nevertheless always longing for the sea simultaneously refuses to give up her humanity and the chance to linger in the sunshine. That’s an angle I rarely see, and I liked it. More than that, I liked how the would-be husband to the narrator’s wife steadfastedly refused to satisfy the normal tropes, and instead doggedly insisted on consent and respect.

It wasn’t quite a happy story, but it was close.

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REVIEW: “The Aftertaste” by Julia Lafond

Review of Julia Lafond, “The Aftertaste,” Flash Fiction Online 141 (June 2025): 19-21 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: Disordered eating.

The last thing Mom needed was my worries on top of hers (p. 20).

This is a story of accommodation, of swallowing all the distress, fear, anger, unhappiness, tamping it down, keeping it down, so that everyone else can be happy.

It’s beautiful and toxic and Lafond’s words make the tastes tingle on my own tongue.

(First published in Twenty-Two Twenty-Eight, October 2023.)

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REVIEW: “Things Elan Reacquainted Himself With After Being Broken Out of His Single-Day Time Loop” by D. A. Straith

Review of D. A. Straith, “Things Elan Reacquainted Himself With After Being Broken Out of His Single-Day Time Loop,” Flash Fiction Online 141 (June 2025): 13-15 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I do love a good list-story! This was short, but effective, especially in conjunction with another title-which-is-basically-a-story-in-itself.

(First published in Inner Worlds 2024.)

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REVIEW: “Something Broken, Someone New” by Caroline Shea

Review of Caroline Shea, “Something Broken, Someone New,” Luna Station Quarterly 62 (June 2025): 15-34 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: Child terminal illness.

This is a story of two forgotten children living in a forgotten airport — are they shadows? Are they ghosts? For much of the story the reader doesn’t know, and it seems like even the children themselves don’t know. Only towards the end is it revealed how they got there, why they are there, in an intimate portrayal of sibling rivalry and love. It’s a strange little story; I enjoyed it.

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REVIEW: “Oathbinder” by L. Fox

Review of L. Fox, “Oathbinder,” Luna Station Quarterly 62 (June 2025): 303-319 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

There was something about Fox’s use of language in the opening pages — how the words sort of slipped and rolled sideways — that was purely magical. The feeling of the prose translated, for me, into a feeling of the world itself, slightly strange, slightly confusing, full of depths that I definitely couldn’t quite understand. This is probably my favorite story of the entire issue.

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REVIEW: “The Family Ghosts” by M. E. Garber

Review of M. E. Garber, “The Family Ghosts,” Luna Station Quarterly 62 (June 2025): 37-47 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Most families are haunted to some degree by the ghosts of their ancestors, but in this story, family ghosts are so much more than that —

“We are your family, your community, your past and your future” (p. 38)

and leaving means not only losing your family but also your history.

The metaphor is obviously one for generational wealth, support, etc. (or the lack thereof!) but its obviousness didn’t detract at all from my enjoyment of the story. I always approve of a story of someone who manages to escape bondage and find freedom.

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REVIEW: “Ends and Means” by Ana Wesley

Review of Ana Wesley, “Ends and Means,” Luna Station Quarterly 62 (June 2025): 261-281 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

It’s another post-apocalyptic story, two women desperately running and trying to stay safe, never sure where they will sleep, what they will eat, who will betray them next. There’s been a lot of these such stories lately, it feels like, and one thing I’ve realized lately is how few post-apocalyptic settings ever really go deep into worldbuilding. The apocalypses are rarely articulated, the enemies often feel interchangeable, the central characters — while varied and interesting in themselves — too seem like they could be swapped from one setting to another without their stories fundamentally changing.

All this to say: There’s been so many stories of this ilk in recent years that it’s now going to take something special for one to stand out for me. It took Wesley’s story a good five pages to get going, but then I finally started getting glimpse of something at least a little bit different: post-apocalyptic fantasy, rather than SF.

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REVIEW: “A Bedtime of Fire, Alchemy, and Ice” by JM Cyrus

Review of JM Cyrus, “A Bedtime of Fire, Alchemy, and Ice,” Luna Station Quarterly 62 (June 2025): 243-258 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Solo parenting a gaggle of young kids while you’ve got experimental research notes you need to write up is never an easy thing — whether or not your research is magical! But Morwedd’s wife is away, so she’s got no choice but to make the balance work.

What I loved most about this story was its portrayal of the sheer *joy* of parenting young children. Yes, under-5s are exhausting and relentless and complicated to parent, especially when there’s more than one of them; but so often it feels like people don’t talk often enough about how much fun it is to be a parent, how joyful it is. So this story just made me happy.

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REVIEW: “Asra’s Magnificent Emporium of Clockworks and Curses” by Madalena Daleziou

Review of Madalena Daleziou, “Asra’s Magnificent Emporium,” Luna Station Quarterly 62 (June 2025): 291-301 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I always enjoy fantasy stories (which this definitely is: cursed objects! divination! witches!) that are nevertheless set in SF settings (Europa!) — there’s something about the cross-genre blending that tickles me. This was an enjoyable tale, no deep thoughts, no big moral, just some slices of Asra’s life and a peak into her very magnificent indeed emporium.

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